1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a light emitting device.
2. Description of the Related Art
An LED light emitting device is configured to include a reflector for light distribution control in many cases. In general, a mold is required to form the reflector, and this may cause an increase in a manufacturing cost of the light emitting device. When the reflector is formed using the mold, accuracy of the shape of the reflector to be formed is not necessarily high, and, as a result, the thickness of the reflector may become thicker than needs. On the other hand, a method of forming the reflector without using the mold has been also proposed. For example, a technique is disclosed in JP-A-2003-046140 in which an upwardly expanded reflector is formed in such a manner that a metal film is formed on an inner surface of a mesh-like mask made of a material soluble in an organic solvent and then the mask is dissolved and removed in the organic solvent (see, for example, FIG. 7 in JP-A-2003-046140).
Another technique is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4590994 in which a dicing process is performed on a ceramic substrate and a glass sealing member using a tapered blade of an inverted-V shape to form tapered side-faces on the glass sealing member and a white resin portion is provided to cover the side faces of the ceramic substrate and the side faces of the glass sealing member after separation for each LED chip by an additional dicing process of the glass sealing member (see, for example, FIG. 12 in Japanese Patent No. 4590994).
According to the technique disclosed in JP-A-2003-046140 described above, it is not necessary to use the mold in forming the reflector. However, since the mesh-like mask made of the material soluble in the organic solvent is formed and the mask should be dissolved and removed after the reflector is formed, there is a problem that steps of preparing the reflector become complicated.
According to Japanese Patent No. 4590994, the white resin portion for covering the tapered side faces of the glass sealing member functions as a reflector. However, the mold may be necessary to form the white resin portion after the separation for each LED chip.